Overview Of Hypertension, Its Symptoms, Factors, Treatment, And Prevention
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a chronic cardiovascular disease in which there is an elevated arterial blood pressure. When hypertension are sustained, it damages arterial blood vessels in the kidney, heart and brain and this has overtime led to an increased incidence of renal failure, coronary disease (disease affecting the blood vessels of the heart), heart failure and stroke. When you talk about its classification, it is generally classified as either primary (essential) or secondary and majority (90-95%) of the cases are termed primary. When you hear the term primary hypertension, what it simply means is that there is no known medical cause of it but as regards the case of secondary hypertension, it is caused by other conditions that affect the kidneys, arteries, heart or the endocrine system (the system of the body involved with hormonal regulation).
The evaluation of hypertension is based on the blood pressure measurement. Let me briefly teach you about what your doctor or physician look out for when measuring your blood pressure, using the sphygmomanometer. Naturally there two normal blood pressure, systolic blood pressure (pressure during heart beat) and diastolic blood pressure (the pressure between two sequential heart beats). When there is a persistent increase in the systolic or diastolic blood pressure beyond normal values for the age of an individual, it becomes hypertension. While measuring your blood pressure, the doctor after inflating the sphygmomanometer cuff that is tied around your arm, he gradually release the pressure until he hears the first loud beat. This first loud noise he hears is the systolic pressure, he takes note of it and continues to relates the pressure from the cuff until he hears another loud noise - diastolic pressure. The ratio of the systolic pressure to the diastolic pressure is known as the blood pressure i. e systolic pressure /diastolic pressure.
Most people believe or think that hypertension is restricted to the elderly ones, I want to as the point let you know that hypertension affect even children and the youths. The normal range for blood pressure is <120/89. When you values gotten are around 120-135/80-89 this is termed pre-hypertension and when the values equals 140/90 it is regarded as hypertension. The diagnosis of hypertension is based on repeated and reproducible measurement of elevated blood pressure. Just like I stated an earlier, the measured value gotten must be consistent before it is regarded as hypertension.
Why it is dangerous
The most dangerous things about this condition is that it is usually asymptomatic (does not present itself with any symptoms) until overt end-organ damage has occurred. You don't get to know that you are gradually developing hypertension until when it has really gone far and must have done some serious damage to several viral organs like the kidney. This calls for the need to do check up, prevention and early diagnosis is better of than treatment.
What are the predisposing factors?
Mostly, the predisposing factors to hypertension include the sedentary life style most people live, smoking (this increase the blood pressure since the toxic smoke from the cigarette competes with oxygen for haemoglobin in the body system and this consequently makes oxygen less available for use by the blood), stress, visceral obesity, hypokalemia, too much salt intake, alcoholism, Vitamin D deficiency, aging and finally genetic mutation.
How is it managed or prevented?
The management of hypertension is quite simple. As long as the aforementioned risk factors above are avoided, the probability of one developing hypertension is quite minimal. Adoption prevention life style changes like less salt intake and less fat meals will do more good. You need to exercise more to burn off excess adipose tissues. Exercise helps you burn off those excess fats that are stored as adipose tissues in the body. As we age, it is always advisable to reduce our consumption of red meats which are high in fats. Reduction in sweet and sugary foods It is even better to take whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry meats, fruits and vegetables, some of which contain anti oxidants that can help burn some fats.
The treatment regime of hypertension
Drugs basically are taken to reduce the high increase in the blood pressure but the the age of the patient matters a lot. The drugs used for treatment of hypertension are knows as anti hypertensives. The major ones in use which are regarded as the first line drugs are the low dose thiazide based diuretics and at times, they are combined so as to achieve full control of blood pressure. A common combination you will find around I'm the market are a fixed combination of angiotensin converting enzyme ACE inhibitor and calcium channel blocker - (perindopril and amlodipine).
